Kurdistan’s Weekly Brief October 11

Turkey

Tensions in between Iraq and Turkey rose when Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country does not need permission for joining the Mosul liberation operation.” Erdogan also called Iraq’s PM Abadi “Know your place” He added, “he is [Abadi] personally insulting me.” This comment comes after Iraq’s Parliament, and Prime Minster called Turkey to withdraw the Turkish forces from Bashiqa, Mosul. On October 4, Iraq’s parliament held a session on Turkey’s army presence in Iraq. The Parliament voted unanimously for five point actions by the government including taking diplomatic and military precautions, review the economic and commercial relations for the protection and defense of Iraqi lands. The Iraqi government called to define the Turkish military forces on Iraqi land as an occupying The Iraqi parliament rejected Erdogan’s statement on the independence of Iraq and considered it to remark that disintegrates the Iraqi constituents. On October 5, 2016, the Spokesperson for the U.S. led International Coalition Lieutenant Colonel John Dorrian said: “The Turkish army on Iraqi soil is illegal and has not entered the country with the official permission of the Iraqi government.”

Police conducted several house raids on Kurdish politicians on October 11 in Diyarbakir’s (Amed) city center and districts. 55 politicians and activists arrested, including Democratic Regions Party (BDP) Diyarbakir Province Co-chair Hafize Ipek, People’s Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakir Province Co-chairs Cebbar Leygara and Gulshen Ozer, HDP Peyas (Kayapınar) District Co-chair Abbas Ercan and other DBP and HDP officials were detained in the operations. Meanwhile, the ongoing crackdown on media outlets continued when 15 journalists and operators of the pro-Kurdish Ozgur Radio got detained. The arrests and the raid came after the radio staff refused to close down and the station and continued the broadcast. European Union (EU) delegation in Turkey called the Turkish Government and the PKK to restart the peace process to avoid more bloodshed. The EU calls after a bomb hit a Turkish checkpoint in Hakari province resulting in the death of 10 Turkish soldiers and eight Since July of 2015.

After missing since May 27 of this year, the Kurdish politician and DBP’s Shirnak Provincial Branch AdministratorHurshit Kulter appeared in Iraq. Kulter said,” Because the safety conditions I was under weren’t suitable for making a statement.” According to Kulter, he could escape the house arrest by the Turkish police where they threaten him with He said “They kept me in a basement somewhere for 13 days. They used intense psychological and physical torture techniques on me.” Since Match 14, 2016, military operations in Shirnak Province are taking place by the Turkish authorities after the pro- Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) youth groups announced self-governance.

Syria

In result of a suicide bomb targeting a Kurdish wedding in Hesekah on October 3, the death toll raised to 34 death and 90 injured. Due to the siege imposed on Rojava and northern Syria, the Co-president of Health Body Suleiman Ahmad Ahmad stressed that the city’s health department is suffering from a drastic shortage of medical equipment and medicine, and appealed to all international medical organizations to provide medical help. Meanwhile, the General Assembly of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) denounced Hasakah massacre saying” we can see Hasake and Dilok crimes are identical and done in the same manner, what happened yesterday is that despotism and terrorism are uniting against any democratic project meeting the aspirations of peoples in co-existence.” On October 11, another ISIS suicide attack targeted the liberated Mashi village near Manbij resulting in death and injury of 10 people.

Syrian National Coalition (SNC) factions relaunched attacks by mortars on Aleppo’s Kurdish district of Sheikh Maqsoud on Saturday morning. Hawar News Agency reported that the Kurdish district of Sheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo controlled by Kurdish Defense Units (YPG) have come under bombardment by Syrian National Coalition. Three civilians killed while the shelling continues. Islamist rebels backed by Turkey had shelled the Kurdish Neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo several times before using chemical materials that inflicted hundreds of casualties among civilians.

Iraq

Nadia Murad, a Yazidi Kurdish human rights activist, received the prestigious 2016 Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize by the Council of Europe Assembly on Monday. The Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize which honors outstanding civil society action in defense of human rights awarded on Monday to Nadia Murad, a Yezidi rights activist who was kidnapped and detained ISIS in Iraq in 2014.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has introduced a new electronic payment system on Monday that will be used to modernize the region’s current method of distributing wages to government employees. Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani said that the deducted part of civil servants salaries would be saved in the bank. Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani were the first government employees to have their electronic cards and biometric data registered at an inaugural event for the new system that will be supervised by the Ministry of Finance. On October 11, the KRG also a meeting of the cabinet to discuss the economic crises facing the region.

Fuad Hussien, the Chief of Staff to the Kurdistan Region Presidency said Masoud Barzani is waiting for Iran to designate a date for Barzani’s visit to Tehran. Barzani was scheduled to visit Iran on October 12-13 and meet with Iranian officials according to an Iranian news website.

Iran

On October 5, in both Mehabad and Marewan cities, hundreds of Kurds protested “oppressive practices” of the Iranian regime. Dewran Rida, a Kurdish rights activist, told ARA News: “The [protests’] main goal was to break the silence and express our outrage about the arbitrary arrests and mass executions in Iran.” Following the protests, tens of Kurdish activists were detained by regime’s forces. Hundreds of Kurdish political activists are imprisoned in Iran, and they face executions.

Pro-Iranian regime media reported that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Commander (IRGC) said that several members of the Party of Life (PJAK) were killed during clashes in between both sides. The clashes took place in Gole Cheydar near Mariwan In a statement, PJAK confirmed the loss of 12 of their fighters and called the Kurdish youth to join their ranks. Both of PJAK and Democratic Party of Kurdistan of Iran (KDP-I) clashed several times with the Iranians Revolutionary Guards in the past six months.